Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 19.djvu/382

"It has been several times stated since Mr. Yancey's death that it resulted from injuries received in this rencounter; but such is not the fact, as he died from a disease that could in no way have been superinduced by this cause."

[The following "open" correspondence is here connectedly presented in justice to all concerned.]

An Open Letter from Dr. R. L. Dabney to Dr. J. William Jones.

[For the Richmond Dispatch, January 2, 1892.]

AUSTIN, TEX. , December 75, 1891.

To the Rev. Dr. John William Jones :

Rev. and Dear Sir: My home is now nearly 2,000 miles from Virginia. I am an old man, infirm and totally blind. I have been recently told that you make me figure in the following mode in one of your published books of war reminiscences. I am told that your scene is laid at the battle of Malvern Hill in 1862, when I was chief-of-staff to General Jackson's corps, that I am represented as crouching behind a large gate-post as a shelter from artillery fire, and that I was twitted with the inconsistency between this act and that doctrine of a protecting Providence which I had preached to the soldiers. I am also told that this fiction is actually illustrated by a picture representing my face and person. This can add only a very stinging point to the story.

I have to assure you that the whole story is absolutely false, and never had even a pretext of fact to palliate its invention. You were not present on the spot yourself, and, of course, do not assert the